Here’s What You Missed in the Second Day of Bill Cosby’s Trial

On Tuesday, Detective David Mason, one of the first police officials to interview Andrea Constand about the alleged assault, testified to back up her story. He described the incident pretty much as Constand had, saying she told him that after Cosby gave her pills “she started feeling dizzy and her legs were feeling jelly.” Under cross-examination by Cosby’s lawyer, Mason testified that Constand said she hadn’t been alone with Cosby before that night, and that she didn’t talk to him much after the alleged assault — both points the defense disputed.

Constand wasn’t cross-examined; she’s expected to retake the stand later this week.

According to the New York Times, the defense initially tried to block the two witnesses — Johnson’s mother, Pattrice Sewell, and Joseph Miller, a lawyer from the talent agency she worked for at the time of the alleged assault — from testifying, but the judge allowed them to speak. Sewell recalled to the court that her daughter had initially been friends with Cosby but later told her about the 1996 instance in which Cosby allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her. From the Times:

She said her daughter told her: “He said she should take this pill. It would calm her down.”

Ms. Sewell said her daughter became depressed, turned inward and later left the agency.

Joseph Miller added that Johnson had also told him about Cosby’s alleged assault when she filed a worker’s compensation claim. “He had exposed himself to her, taken some of her clothing off,” Miller said. He added that Cosby “wanted her to fondle him and she didn’t want to do that … She cried several times during the deposition, I remember she was tearful during the session.”

Then Constand took the stand for what the Times said was more than an hour. “I trusted him,” she said, describing her initial relationship with Cosby. “He was a Temple friend, somebody I trusted as a mentor, and somewhat of an older figure to me.” She described two instances when Cosby touched her inappropriately before the alleged assault: once when he tried to unbutton her pants, and once when he touched her thigh. And then she described the assault she said took place in 2004 at Cosby’s Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion:

“He said these will help you relax,” she testified [referring to pills Cosby gave her]. “He said put them down. They are your friends. They will take the edge off.”

He offered her wine, her vision began to blur and she couldn’t walk, she said. “I said, ‘I see two of you,’ ” she said.

After he helped her to a couch, she lost consciousness and awoke in a jolt, she said. “I felt Mr. Cosby’s hand,” she said “groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out and I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth.”

She also provided an explanation for her continued contact with Cosby after the alleged assault. “I didn’t not want to call Mr. Cosby back because I thought it would look negative on me,” she told the court. “I didn’t want to stir up any trouble.”

Finally Detective David Mason, one of the first police officials to interview Constand about the alleged assault, testified to back up her story. He described the incident pretty much as Constand had, saying she told him that after Cosby gave her pills “she started feeling dizzy and her legs were feeling jelly.” Under cross-examination by Cosby’s lawyer, Mason said that Constand said she hadn’t been alone with Cosby before that night, and that she didn’t talk to him much after the alleged assault — both points the defense disputed.

Constand wasn’t cross-examined; she’s expected to re-take the stand later this week.